1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to protective covers for housing various items, and more particularly, to a book-like outside-hinged cover for packaging, housing and protecting items such as stamp collections, photographs, compact discs, cassettes, and other electronic storage media.
2. Description of Related Art
With reference now to FIG. 1A, an exemplary typical hardcover book 10 known in the art comprises a plurality of pages 12 and a cover 14 (referred to as the book's “case” in the bookbinding arts) having two panels 15, 16, a spine 17, and two hinges 18, 19, with one hinge 18, 19 on either side of the spine 17. The plurality of pages 12 forms a support structure for the panels 15, 16 of the cover 14, keeping the spine 17 at substantially a right angle with respect to the panels 15, 16. As illustrated in FIG. 1B, if all the pages 12 are removed from the book 10′ and the book 10′ is shut, the spine 17 will collapse. This occurs because, as one hinge 19 opens, the spine 17 approximates one panel 15 of the cover 14 as the angle between the two at the hinge 19 decreases, and as the other hinge 18 closes, the spine 17 moves away from the other panel 16 of the cover 14 as the angle between the two at the hinge 18 increases. The thickness of the book 10′ that remains (i.e., only the cover 14) will equal approximately the combined thickness of one cover panel 15 and the other cover panel 16.
Illustrated another way, FIG. 1C shows a typical hardbound book 70, which comprising a cover 76 having a front panel portion 71, a rear panel portion 72, and a spine portion 73, and is hinged on the inside of the spine 73. In this inside-hinge configuration, the front 71 and rear 72 panels both rotate about the spine panel 73 by means of hinges 78, 79 formed in a pliable material between the front 71 and rear 72 panels and the spine panel 73, wherein the axes of rotation are located toward the inside of the book 70, away from the spine panel 74. This inside-hinge configuration limits the inward rotational travel of the front 71 and rear 72 panels toward one another solely based on the thickness of the plurality of pages contained within the cover 76. If the plurality of pages is not attached, either directly or indirectly, to the spine 73, then appropriate support for the front 71 and rear 72 panels may not be provided when the panels 71, 72 are shut.
Thus, in order for a typical hardcover book to maintain its rigidity while shut, the following two requirements must be met: (1) the width (thickness) of the spine must be approximately equal to the combined thickness of the front panel, the contents, and the back panel; and (2) the inside of the spine must be attached at nearly all points along its length to the contents of the cover.
Numerous situations exist in which the foregoing two conditions cannot be met, e.g., a photo album or stamp album that is not completely filled with pages, or a book holding compact discs (CDs), cassettes, diskettes, or other data storage or recording media. Prior art solutions to the problem of the collapsing spine include three-ring binders, certain photo albums, and holders for storing CDs. The three-ring binder or notebook maintains a rigid spine because of the rigidity of the metal rings, which also serve to retain the pages. Some photo albums have screws for retaining the pages, which also aid in maintaining the spine's rigidity.
Known solutions to the problem of the collapsing spine, e.g., the common CD packages known as “jewel boxes”, introduce other deficiencies, some of which exist partly because the universal standard width of a CD package is {fraction (5/16)}″, despite the fact that the combined thickness of a CD and the printed material accompanying the CD is usually less than ⅛″. Made of plastic, the jewel box is easily cracked, the hinge is easily broken, the front panel is hard to open, the booklet is difficult to remove and to replace, the general look is ordinary and mass-produced, and the excessive amount of plastic contributes to the problem of pollution. An exemplary alternative to the jewel box might be a hardcover booklet, wherein the combined thickness of the front panel, the boss that holds the CD onto the inside of one panel, the booklet glued onto the other panel, and the back panel, equals {fraction (5/16)}″. However, since the inside of the spine cannot feasibly be attached at all points to the contents of the booklet, the spine still collapses.